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"Kissing bug" threatens Texas Valley
Can carry a protozoan parasite called Trypanosoma
Updated: Monday, 24 Oct 2011, 12:49 PM CDT
Published : Sunday, 23 Oct 2011, 6:59 PM CDT
MCALLEN, Texas (AP) - There's a new public health hazard in the Lower Rio Grande Valley: a bug indigenous to Central and South America that carries a parasite that can cause potentially fatal heart and digestive problems.
The insect is known commonly as the kissing bug and can carry a protozoan parasite called Trypanosoma Cruzi. Experts say the parasite is transmitted through the insect's waste, which it deposits on the skin when it bites and enters the bloodstream when the host scratches the resulting itch.
Teresa Patricia Feria is an assistant biology professor at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg. The Monitor of McAllen reports Feria leads the effort to collect the bug found around the Valley and sent them to Austin for testing.
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